Army Procurement

Defense Logistics Agency's Administration of Contracts for Canteen Cups Gao ID: NSIAD-88-16 November 27, 1987

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Defense Logistics Agency's (DLA) practices and procedures for awarding and administering two contracts for canteen cups, to determine the contractor's: (1) capability to perform the contracts; and (2) compliance with the contract terms and conditions.

GAO found that: (1) the preaward survey showed that, although the contractor did not have all the equipment needed to perform the contract, it could acquire the necessary production capability through a subcontractor; (2) DLA was careless in administering the contract, since it failed to timely begin production surveillance; (3) because DLA did not revise the delivery schedule or send a cure notice requiring the contractor to explain the failure to make progress, the government was unable to terminate the contract for default; (4) DLA modified the first contract to extend the delivery date and required the contractor to pay $1,969 for the extension; (5) because another firm filed suit in U.S. District Court to seek relief, the court issued an injunction to halt further work on the second contract until after the investigation; and (6) because the contractor failed to deliver any cups, DLA had to solicit suppliers to satisfy an emergency procurement of the cups, which cost about 34 percent more than the average unit price under the two contracts.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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